The stock market is again losing confidence in the troubled merger project that is Standard Life Aberdeen. After a brief recovery that began in the middle of December, the fund management group’s share price has been back in the doldrums since July, despite signs that it is beginning to work through its problems.
At the company’s half-year results this month, for example, there was finally a reduction in the net amount of customer money that was being withdrawn, down to £15.9 billion, from £16.9 billion before. Respectable amounts of new funds, £36.5 billion, came in during the six months to the end of June and profits fell no more rapidly than those of its market rivals. Yet the group’s shares continued to fall.
Standard